Infusions..part 2

Hi, as promised I'm back to share some more of my infusion explorations...this may take some time. First up is 3D gel, and I've used Finnabairs transparent 3D gel for this.

I made these before I saw Nikki's fab post here of Addicted to Art where she used texture paste and her way is a much better way of doing it especially if you want crisp, clean results, however here's the method I used which gives grungier results.

I placed a stencil over card and spread the gel through it, once removed I sprinkled a mixture of infusion powders over the gel and left to dry. I was quite generous because I wanted the powders to show up.

Once dry I flicked the powder off, but there will always be some residue and I decided to use some white paint and matte glaze hoping that the 3D gel would resist the paint....now this gets worse before it gets better.

Yes I created mud!! The middle section is the result of painting over with white (honestly) but take a baby wipe to it (far right) and the pebbles will pop.

I really loved the result, here's the other one.

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This is a more open stencil and I've used some archival ink brushed across the top.

There's something about the gel on the grungy background that I really like. It then took another week and some further experimenting for the penny to drop that as the paint and glaze have now sealed any infusions in I could paint over with another colour and make them lighter if I wanted.

I rubbed over the gel with some archival ink to make them pop more.

I've used gold paint here.

and here I mixed metallic glaze with some london night paint to just give a subtle shimmer....this is before

and this is after

These are the 2 tags I made at the beginning of my experiments.

Another way of using a stencil which I find so easy and so effective came about from shaking the excess infusion off onto a piece of card and instead of just adding water, I put the stencil in place first.

Really doesn't look like there is much powder there but...

One spray

and a little more, then be patient

Don't take the stencil off right away, let the darker crystals work their magic. Then dry.

I think this is where these powders just excel because you get a lovely vintage effect that you won't be able to create if you use a spray. 

I shared these earlier this week on FB but not the how....which is so easy don't you think? 

Before

 After... using a favourite PaperArtsy set,  and the gold shimmer is color stix. I still have a couple more little tags of further dabbles to share but I'll pop back soon with those.

Hope you enjoyed the rather lengthy post and as always thanks for visiting. Ruth x